St. George Defense: Polish Variation

1. e4 a6 2. d4 b5 3. Nf3 Bb7 4. Bd3 e6

The St. George Defense: Polish Variation is a chess opening classified as ECO B00, reached after 1. e4 a6 2. d4 b5 3. Nf3 Bb7 4. Bd3 e6. It is a line of the St. George Defense. White is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 330 times by this move order. White won 55%, 3% were drawn and Black won 42%. The most popular continuation is 5. O-O (55% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.80 (Stockfish, depth 42; best line 5. c3 Nf6 6. e5 Nd5 7. a4 c5)

ECO: B00
Moves: 8 plies
FEN: rn1qkbnr/1bpp1ppp/p3p3/1p6/3PP3/3B1N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 0 5
PGN: 1. e4 a6 2. d4 b5 3. Nf3 Bb7 4. Bd3 e6

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	65	60%37%
1500-1999	234	54%43%
2000+	31	52%42%
All	330	55%42%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
5. O-O	180 (55%)	61%37%
5. c3	25 (8%)	56%44%
5. Be3	24 (7%)	42%50%
5. Bf4	21 (6%)	33%67%
5. a3	17 (5%)	41%59%
5. Qe2	15 (5%)	40%53%
5. Nc3	13 (4%)	62%31%
5. Nbd2	9 (3%)	44%56%

Master games

130 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 47%, draw 11%, Black 42%). The strongest:

LCZero 0.30-dag-9a9c42d_784968 (3599) – Stockfish dev16_20221027 (3625) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 23 Superfinal 2022 · 2022-11-04
Stockfish dev16_20221027 (3625) – LCZero 0.30-dag-9a9c42d_784968 (3599) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 23 Superfinal 2022 · 2022-11-04
GM Sanan Sjugirov (2661) – GM Vladimir Fedoseev (2685) 1/2-1/2 · Chess.com Speed Play-In · 2024-06-27
GM Mikhail Kobalia (2614) – GM Dmitry Andreikin (2726) 0-1 · Titled Tuesday 19th May · 2020-05-19
GM Mikhail Kobalia (2590) – GM Daniil Dubov (2702) 0-1 · Titled Tue 21st Jun Early · 2022-06-21

Search all games of the St. George Defense: Polish Variation and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Magystr (2406) – NexorCaldor (2592) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 2s
slightlybetter1 (2360) – denlogrendehund (2502) 0-1 · 2026-09-07 · 180 + 0s
Verdik (2405) – FM lauts (2344) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 2s

Comes from

St. George Defense 1. e4 a6

More St. George Defense lines (all)

Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.